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The Florida First Amendment Foundation usually gives awards to reporters who break big stories, or to public officials who go beyond the “Government in the Sunshine” laws to protect the public’s right to know, not to people who make the news themselves.

But this week, the FAF “Friend of the First Amendment Award” was presented to a man whose insistence on free speech has made him an annoying, unwelcome presence during public-comment time at Riviera Beach City Council meetings. That oft-overused cliché about speaking truth to power really applies, this time.

There’s another issue involved, though, when viewed from the city’s side. Public officials have to listen and people have a right to speak, but how far from the topic at hand may a citizen stray? How much do city officials have to sit still for? Where’s the line between venting your spleen and presenting inconvenient facts?

Fane Lozman is involved in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court – his second trip to the nation’s highest tribunal – testing whether government officials have to hear what they’d rather not be told. Lozman didn’t threaten violence or physically disrupt a city council meeting, or use obscene language. He’s just one of those guys who shows up at meetings and expresses himself, sometimes unpleasantly.

When city officials have heard enough, they want to move on to other business. But sometimes city officials don’t like guys like Lozman or don’t want the press and the public hearing what they might say. The Legislature has always had a gadfly or two, the self-appointed “people’s lobbyist” who gets tiresome fast, but still gets two minutes at the microphone.

Freedom of speech isn’t just for welcome guests. And there’s nothing saying a commissioner or committee member can’t go get a cup of coffee, make a phone call or use the facilities every time that old familiar face appears at the lectern.

Short of some threat to public safety, though, you’re not supposed to arrest them.

“He acted like he was in charge, could take over the meeting, could talk about whatever he wanted,” said Ben Bedard, an attorney representing the city in the case. “It was supposed to be about city business; if he’d talked city business, these events never would have happened.”

If you go to YouTube and index for Lozman’s name, you’ll see how he barely got started on one occasion before he called a city employee “a rude, obnoxious guy,” and was immediately declared out of order. The video clip that shows his arrest featured Lozman simply referring to past corruption in Palm Beach County West Palm Beach, also just seconds into his remarks, when the presiding officer decided that was enough.

He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest but prosecutors dropped the charges when they realized they’re not in Russia, Syria or one of those other places where people who speak out just might disappear. So Lozman sued Riviera Beach, contending his First Amendment right of free speech had been violated.

Remember that we mentioned above how Lozman is making his second trip to the Supreme Court?

Well, the first one involved beating the city on a marina redevelopment issue. He owned a houseboat that the city wanted to remove. The city sued in federal court under maritime law to seize the boat. Long story short, the Supreme Court ruled that his property was not a boat, but a floating home, and therefore subject to a different standard for government condemnation.

His later arrest for speaking at a commission meeting was really retaliation for beating City Hall on the houseboat thing, Lozman contended in his suit.

Bedard said Lozman had spoken at countless other meetings on wide-ranging and often irrelevant topics. Once, it was about the mayor’s brother biting somebody. Another time, it was corruption elsewhere in the county, which Riviera Beach council members had nothing to do with. The lawyer said the city has a long record of letting citizens speak at meetings, but that Lozman strayed too far, too often, from city business.

The FAF, which presented Lozman its “Friend of the First Amendment” award on Tuesday, has filed a brief in the Supreme Court on his behalf.

“The danger of being arrested in retaliation for engaging in protected speech threatens to chill the exercise of core First Amendment rights such as questioning or otherwise criticizing the government,” said the brief. “The potential chilling effect is especially acute in smaller towns and cities across America.”

Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat reporter who writes a twice-weekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this column stated that Fane Lozman had sued the city of Riviera Beach over removal of a houseboat. In fact, the city sued him, and he prevailed upon appeal.